12

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

nearly 70% of these companies have suffered no loss in total
output per week and are, therefore, obtaining greater production
 per hour than under the longer working schedule.
Unless wage scales were substantially increased, this seems
to indicate that management has not lost through the
change, and is actually operating with a lower unit cost of
output.
Of thirty-two companies in which weekly hours were maintained,
 more than one-half found production the same under
the five-day as under the longer schedule, and fourteen noted
an increase in output. Only one company reported a loss in
output, and this would seem to have been caused by reasons
other than the change in working schedule. The single company
 that reported an increase in hours had discovered no
increase in output.
Considering these companies together, without regard to
changes in total hours per week resulting from the adoption
of the five-day week, it appears that an almost even half
found weekly production unchanged, and another quarter
noted an increase. How much of the maintenance or increase
 in output, especially in those plants in which the hours
of work per week had been reduced, was due to better management
 methods, including better processing, and how much
to more active cooperation and application on the part of the
working force, it is difficult to say. Undoubtedly both have
been factors in accomplishing the desired result and have
demonstrated that maintenance of production can be accomplished
 on a considerable scale.
The data presented reveal other significant facts. More
than half of the plants in.which production declined in proportion
 to the reduction in weekly hours are now operating
on a union-enforced 40-hour week. Only one company works
as long a schedule as forty-seven and one-half hours per week.
Companies that adopted the five-day week as a result of
union agreements, which also provided that weekly wages
remain the same in spite of reduction in weekly hours of
work, are thus the chief sufferers from loss of production.
This result seems natural, since under these conditions there
is no incentive for producing at any more rapid rate than
before the change in working schedule. On the other hand,